Around the middle of the draft, I recognized the board control potential of the deck, and so leaned more towards buff cards and divine shield givers. I did this run on my smurfy Euro account, which I used to get some arena practice while saving for Naxxramas wings on my main NA account. At this rate, my Euro account might save enough gold to buy all the wings of Naxx too.

Just went 12-2 after starting out 0-2, which feels really good. I thought my deck was quite good and was quite frustrated it looked so bad in the beginning, especially since the priest I lost my second game to seemed to have literally the only possible answers to what I did: He Mass dispelled my board of 2 blessing-of-kinged Oozes+Nerubian Egg, and Auchenai-Circled my huge board later on.

Just went 12-2 after starting out 0-2, which feels really good. I thought my deck was quite good and was quite frustrated it looked so bad in the beginning, especially since the priest I lost my second game to seemed to have literally the only possible answers to what I did: He Mass dispelled my board of 2 blessing-of-kinged Oozes+Nerubian Egg, and Auchenai-Circled my huge board later on.

I hear ya. I had an Paladin arena run just now that went 8-3 where I lost the first 2 games. Just goes to show that it's always worth playing an arena run to the end if you think your deck has what it takes to go far.

One thing to note though is that if you do go 0-2 the chances are decently high that you will still get pretty far with your deck. Because it will try to match you with someone else who is 0-2 so they will usually have a poor deck. Then you get matched with someone close to 1-2 who most likely also has a poor deck. Where as when you win a bunch and your 5-0 you tend to hit someone who has a much better deck and can start to lose steam.

I know at least from my experience I usually go 5-0 and then from 5-7 wins is where I get most of my losses usually 1 or 2, It seems like there i a wall for me there. But if I start out 0-2 I can still get 7 wins pretty frequently.

Some of my best runs and actually I believe some of my 12 win runs have all been from starting out 0-2. So don't give up if it looks bleak!

(Also this info could be wrong. I havn't found a source that I'm citing or anything but I'm pretty sure I heard it from somewhere that was a blizzard employee or something. But this could be wrong and don't trust it 100% unless you find a source that you can trust)

Some unsolicited pick comments:1. Shade is easily the worst of the 3 cards offered. It's an average 3-drop. Doomhammer is amazing.3. I fell like you have to take Champ, expecially in Shaman. It's a top tier card while Forked is merely above average.8. I like Bloodsail better than Panther, simply because 2-drops are more important than 3-drops.16. Earth Shock is okay, but I think Cleric is too good in Shaman to pass up for anything that's not going to 2-for-1.18. Tauren is one of the worst cards in the game. While Bodyguard will often trade down, it will almost always at least trade for a card, which is more than can be said for Tauren.

I also just got a 2 Legendary Arena run! So far it's gone 3-0. This is what I drafted from memory (I have not setup Arena Mastery yet, but I think I am about to). I clearly forgot a few cards, but I think they're probably average 2 or 3 drop minions. (Edit: Actually I recounted and apparently I remember all 30 cards which shocks me that my memory is so good, there's possibly 1 or 2 errors, but this is very close to the exact draft). Where I remember the draft cards I rejected I've put the cards I didn't pick in ()s.

On Tauren Warrior: I agree that it's pretty garbage with most classes, but in Mage it's probably only a slightly below average 3 drop since you can activate it yourself. An expensive Amani Berserker with Taunt is better than a lot of things in a Mage deck.On Undertaker: There is definitely only 1 card with Deathrattle in my deck (Dancing Sword) but it's still better than Silverback and Mogushan.On Black Knight: I briefly debated taking Alexandria, but eventually decided on Black Knight because of the popularity of Taunt cards in Arena. I haven't actually drawn him yet, but I'm sure he'll be great. (I never considered taking Tinkmaster.)On Ysera: I really considered Loatheb here, but I think he's better in Constructed than Arena as Arena decks tend to be more minion heavy (not the one I drafted, but in general). Ysera on the other hand can generate a big card advantage late game and hopefully by the time she's played some other beefy card has eaten the creature removal spells from the opponents deck. (This happened in my second game where Protector ate a Polymorph letting me put Ysera out safely and win.) I like Hogger, but he's usually killed off before you can get much value out of him, Ysera and Loatheb are superior in my opinion.On Molten Giant decision: This was my first choice in the game and in retrospect I would have taken Sea Giant. There's been plenty of opportunities to play it for 6 or less (the Violet Teachers have been spawning lots of Apprentices and Duplicate tends to let you flood the board at some point, especially if you duplicate something cheap or a Violet Teacher). I considered taking BGH, but thought to myself "Would I rather kill a big creature an opponent might have or have a big creature that an opponent might kill?" The answer was then clear that I needed a Giant. Luckily I drafted other ways to deal with large threats.On Violet Teachers: Normally I would consider this a pretty average card, not bad, but not great. In this draft though they get a lot of value almost always creating 1 or 2 apprentices before eating a silence or being killed.

On the deck in general:This is a spell heavy draft. Two Mana Wyrms, two Violet Teachers and a Sorceror's Apprentice synergize really well with spells. Lots of Frostbolts, two Polymorphs, and a Flamestrike are great on their own, but having those spell synergy minions makes Arcane Missiles, Arcane Intellect and Cone of Cold punch above their weight class. No opportunities to draft Spell Power cards made me sad, though, and I think would have really pushed this draft through the roof.

This deck has a lack of strong 4 drops (no Yetis, Water Elementals or Senjins were seen in the draft, nor were any Fireballs), but a lot of the smaller cards can trade up so they're making up for it a bit.

I'm starting to warm up to Pint Sized Summoner. Before, I thought it was pretty bad, since it's a 2/2 that usually dies pretty fast.

Now, I'm putting it around average. Yes, it's not as good if you draw it after the first couple of turns, or if you're going second. However, if you can play it turn 2, and it doesn't die, the power of getting a 4 cost out on turn 3 makes it worth it.

From playing it a bit, here's the common scenarios:

1. Go first, play turn 2 against empty board. Either they kill it that turn, which makes it no different from a 3/2, or it lives and you can get a 4 cost out next turn2. Go second, coin it out if it makes sense to (meaning you have another 2 cost and a 3 cost.) Same scenario, either trades for a piece of removal or you get a 3 drop turn 2, which isn't amazing but can help.3. Go second, doesn't make sense to coin it, and they play a 2/3 or 3/2 on their turn 2. The 2/3 is worst, the 3/2 is okay but leaves you open to SSC.3. Go second, play turn 2, somehow lives until your turn 3 because they didn't play anything turn 2. Then it's the same as the first case.4. Draw late game and it's bad.

So overall, I think I should be treating it as a weaker Knife Juggler - it has a big target and usually dies first, sometimes dying in bad ways for card advantage, but the potential tempo boost makes it decent.

(The deck I'm playing where I started thinking about this, in case this is only true because my deck has a nice curve for it. Might be true, I have some pretty solid 4s. Warlock, currently 5-2.)

Have you guys ever had a draft that you thought sucked but then it does remarkably well? I had an insightful Mage arena run yesterday that I thought would struggle to reach 3 wins because it didn't have many good early minions. Instead it went 9-3:http://arenamastery.com/mD8XI didn't bother adding the draft choices info. Sometimes I feel that recording all the draft choices distracts me, or maybe I'm just lazy sometimes. I'm curious to know how happy you'd all be if you had such a draft.

It was really interesting how the cards played out together. It gave me a sense of what a real tempo-heavy deck would play like. Turns 1-3 I had to play defensively, but after turn 4 I had an onslaught on value minions to play. If my opponents didn't respond to them promptly, then my minions could do enough face damage to give me Pyroblast-lethal later. The deck wouldn't win by board control, but taunts were key to keeping my mininos from being traded into. Makes me think that the lack of Flamestrike actually improved the deck. Pyroblast was key though.

Have you guys ever had a draft that you thought sucked but then it does remarkably well?

No, but I've had the reverse happen, let's see, pretty much every time I've entered the arena.

How likely you are to get far in a run is inversely proportional to how many legendaries you have in the draft.

This is totally untrue. Legendaries are strong cards a lot if the time. You just can't view them as an auto win.

Based on the stories I've read in this thread and personal experience, legendaries have little to do with how successful the deck will be at best and curse the deck to mediocrity at worst. Maybe the legendaries just need a deck that they fit in well with to be awesome. Still, the complaints of "OMG arena sux need RNG to draft legendaries and epics 2 win" that you see online are total nonsense.

Many legendaries are situational or have prohibitively high mana cost. I can totally see myself taking, say, a Sunwalker instead of a legendary like Sylvanas. Incidently, The Black Knight is possibly one of the strongest legendaries you can draft just due to the number of quality threats it can remove, such as Sunwalker.

Have you guys ever had a draft that you thought sucked but then it does remarkably well?

No, but I've had the reverse happen, let's see, pretty much every time I've entered the arena.

How likely you are to get far in a run is inversely proportional to how many legendaries you have in the draft.

This is totally untrue. Legendaries are strong cards a lot if the time. You just can't view them as an auto win.

Based on the stories I've read in this thread and personal experience, legendaries have little to do with how successful the deck will be at best and curse the deck to mediocrity at worst. Maybe the legendaries just need a deck that they fit in well with to be awesome. Still, the complaints of "OMG arena sux need RNG to draft legendaries and epics 2 win" that you see online are total nonsense.

Many legendaries are situational or have prohibitively high mana cost. I can totally see myself taking, say, a Sunwalker instead of a legendary like Sylvanas. Incidently, The Black Knight is possibly one of the strongest legendaries you can draft just due to the number of quality threats it can remove, such as Sunwalker.

Oh I agree the "RNG for legends to wn arena" is totally false, but that doesn't stop Cairne from being a solid 6drop, or Rag from being a good late game card. You just have to think about the choice like any other card in the draft, picking a big legendary only if you can afford the large drop in your deck.

So, I'm jinx and I stay away from picking mage in arena.So after refusing it many times, I finally said "heck it" and picked it.And like last 3 times. No Fireballs, No Flamestrikes. 2 Watery guys but once I misscliced and picked 2/2 vanilla .

Have you guys ever had a draft that you thought sucked but then it does remarkably well?

No, but I've had the reverse happen, let's see, pretty much every time I've entered the arena.

How likely you are to get far in a run is inversely proportional to how many legendaries you have in the draft.

This is totally untrue. Legendaries are strong cards a lot if the time. You just can't view them as an auto win.

Based on the stories I've read in this thread and personal experience, legendaries have little to do with how successful the deck will be at best and curse the deck to mediocrity at worst. Maybe the legendaries just need a deck that they fit in well with to be awesome. Still, the complaints of "OMG arena sux need RNG to draft legendaries and epics 2 win" that you see online are total nonsense.

Many legendaries are situational or have prohibitively high mana cost. I can totally see myself taking, say, a Sunwalker instead of a legendary like Sylvanas. Incidently, The Black Knight is possibly one of the strongest legendaries you can draft just due to the number of quality threats it can remove, such as Sunwalker.

Oh I agree the "RNG for legends to wn arena" is totally false, but that doesn't stop Cairne from being a solid 6drop, or Rag from being a good late game card. You just have to think about the choice like any other card in the draft, picking a big legendary only if you can afford the large drop in your deck.

I'm currently in the middle of a 4-2 Hunter run with Deathwing in it. I guess all bets are off when it comes to Deathwing. I almost won with it last game, but my opponent was able to drop molten giant with 4 extra damage worth of minions.

Have you guys ever had a draft that you thought sucked but then it does remarkably well?

No, but I've had the reverse happen, let's see, pretty much every time I've entered the arena.

How likely you are to get far in a run is inversely proportional to how many legendaries you have in the draft.

This is totally untrue. Legendaries are strong cards a lot if the time. You just can't view them as an auto win.

Based on the stories I've read in this thread and personal experience, legendaries have little to do with how successful the deck will be at best and curse the deck to mediocrity at worst. Maybe the legendaries just need a deck that they fit in well with to be awesome. Still, the complaints of "OMG arena sux need RNG to draft legendaries and epics 2 win" that you see online are total nonsense.

Many legendaries are situational or have prohibitively high mana cost. I can totally see myself taking, say, a Sunwalker instead of a legendary like Sylvanas. Incidently, The Black Knight is possibly one of the strongest legendaries you can draft just due to the number of quality threats it can remove, such as Sunwalker.

Oh I agree the "RNG for legends to wn arena" is totally false, but that doesn't stop Cairne from being a solid 6drop, or Rag from being a good late game card. You just have to think about the choice like any other card in the draft, picking a big legendary only if you can afford the large drop in your deck.

I'm currently in the middle of a 4-2 Hunter run with Deathwing in it. I guess all bets are off when it comes to Deathwing. I almost won with it last game, but my opponent was able to drop molten giant with 4 extra damage worth of minions.

Deathwing is unique in that sense, that either it'll win or be a waste of a card. It's more like the mid drop legendaris, and some of the class ones, are decent on their own. I agree though that some are too specific, things like anotindas and such. But things like Tirion Frodring are amazing.

Deathwing is one of the best legendaries in arena though, because you'll only play it in a losing position. Meaning, you are either winning, or you completely turn around the game, and if they could remove Deathwing you were probably going to lose anyways.

Okay, maybe saying it's the best is a bit too much, especially because you could die before turn 10, but I'd certainly pick it over most legendaries.

Deathwing is one of the best legendaries in arena though, because you'll only play it in a losing position. Meaning, you are either winning, or you completely turn around the game, and if they could remove Deathwing you were probably going to lose anyways.

Okay, maybe saying it's the best is a bit too much, especially because you could die before turn 10, but I'd certainly pick it over most legendaries.

I didn't say it was bad, just that it's effect is unique and isn't quite representational of picking legendaries in arena.